Crimson Blade
by Mikaela Nozomi
Summary: A mutation to the Cordyceps fungus nearly destroys all civilization. Naomi is a 19 year old girl that is one of the survivors of the massacre. Armed with only a samurai sword she found, she joins Joel and Tess. Follows the events of the Last of Us plot, with my own twists. Rated T for language and violence. Might be Rated M later on.
1. Prologue

**Hey everyone! This is my first time writing a story for the Last of Us. I really love this game and felt inspired to create my own story about it.**

_**(Disclaimer: Naughty Dog owns this game and its characters. The only thing I own is my OC and plot twists.)**_

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><p><em><strong>Ten Years Ago...<strong>_

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><p>"Naomi!"<p>

She shot up from her bed, startled. Her mother was sweating, fear written all over her expression. "We have to go, pack up whatever you need."

"Mommy, you're scaring me." Naomi said, fully awake. She was nine years old.

"There's no time! Hurry!" Her mother helped her out of bed and tossed her a shirt and a skirt to change into. Then she pulled out her backpack that she used for school and started stuffing in extra pairs of shirts and skirts.

Naomi's father came running into the room. "We have to go, _now." _Her father was holding a 12 gauge pump action Benelli M4 Tactical shotgun. Two 12-inch KA-BAR knives were sheathed on both legs and a belt of shotgun rounds was slung around his shoulder. Blood was splattered all over his white shirt.

Naomi slung her backpack on her shoulders and put on her shoes, then went with her parents to the living room. They lived in an apartment complex in Manhattan, New York. Naomi's father opened the door to the hall only to shut it the next instant. She caught a glance of a man outside their apartment. Immediately, that man started banging on the door, trying to break it down.

"Out the fire escape, hurry!" Naomi's father said as he pumped a slug round into the chamber of the shotgun. Naomi's mother pulled the window to the fire escape open.

"Come on, sweetie." Her mother said as softly as she could, trying to hide the fear in her voice.

"Mommy, I'm scared." Naomi whimpered. She had a right to be scared. Not only was there a crazy man trying to break down their door, they were ten stories up.

"It's okay, mommy's right here." She said, holding out her arms to Naomi from the fire escape.

Reluctantly, Naomi climbed out onto the fire escape and her mother picked her up and held her. "John, come on!" Not long after she said that, the loud pop of the shotgun rang in the air and John vaulted out the window onto the fire escape, shutting the window behind him.

"Alright, Jane." He said as he caught up with them. "Where's your brother's place?"

"All the way in Boston." she replied, trying to comfort the sobbing Naomi as they descended down the fire escape.

John groaned, "is that the closest relative you have?"

"Yes, now we have to get to the truck." Jane said.

They reached the concrete floor of the ground as John took the lead. They were going to their Dodge Ram in the parking garage, but stopped when they saw a battle ensuing between the police and the infected. A woman screamed as a Runner bit into her shoulder. Gun fire filled the air as the police tried to hold their line.

"Mommy what's that?" Naomi asked, turning. Jane stopped her and told her not to look.

"We have to find another way." John said, leading them a different way.

He lead them down to another street where the other side of the parking garage was at. This side was empty, no infected or anyone else, but that didn't stop them from being cautious. As they entered the parking garage, they spotted several Runners feasting on the body of a man. They quietly sneaked around them towards the second floor.

Due to Naomi falling asleep, they were able to maneuver quietly around groups of infected. John pulled out the keys to the Ram as the black 4WD truck came into view. It was untouched and undamaged.

John told Jane to wait while he quietly crept up to the truck. John was a full-time Navy SEAL, he had come back to New York after receiving a month-long vacation to visit Jane and Naomi. He was using everything he learned in training.

He heard the click of a hammer being pulled back on a revolver before he heard Jane. "John!" She called out.

He turned around, aiming the shotgun at the guy holding Jane hostage. Naomi was surprisingly still asleep.

"We don't want any trouble," John said as he inched closer and closer, the Benelli M4 never shaking in his grip.

"Then just give me that shotgun and your knives. And the keys to the truck." The hooded boy said.

"Look, we can all get out of here alive. You can come with us." John tried to offer.

"No, you're lying! The moment I let my guard down, you're going to pump me full of hot lead!" He pressed the barrel of the revolver harder against Jane's temple. "Just give me the fucking stuff that I asked for and no one here has to fucking die!"

John saw the intense fear in the boy's eyes. Behind the hood was a boy no older than seventeen. Fear has a way of making someone think irrationally.

"Alright, alright." John said, holding the shotgun by the barrel with one hand. "Just let them go."

Then suddenly, the air was filled with loud screeching. Runners appeared around the corner and were right behind Jane and Naomi. The boy, filled with terror, let them go and started firing the revolver at the Runners, screaming at the same time.

Jane ran to John. "Go!" John yelled as he gave Jane the keys to the truck. "I'll hold them off, get to Boston and meet with your brother!"

"But-"

"Don't argue with me! Get Naomi out of here!" She saw the pained expression on John's face. "I'll meet you in Boston."

Jane looked back at the group of Runners overwhelming the boy as some of them turned their attention to them. Fearing for Naomi's life, she reluctantly decided to leave. "I better see you in Boston..." She said.

"I'll be there. I promise." He kissed her briefly. "Now go!" He said, firing at the Runners that were coming at them.

Jane fought back tears as she unlocked the truck and placed Naomi into her car seat. After starting the truck, she backed it out of the parking spot and looked back at John. He was looking at her and nodded. Jane shifted the truck into the first gear and sped through the mass of Runners as she turned onto the first floor. The impact of the Runners shook the truck, but the Ram was built to take the hits. The engine roared as Jane drove off into the horrific night towards Boston, Massachusetts.

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><p>John watched as the truck sped off. He was out of ammo and was holding both his knives as more Runners came at him. Sweat seeped out of every pore in his body and clashed with the blood of the Runners that was splattered all over him.<p>

There were still at least fifteen of them left. His muscles ached, crying out for a moment to rest. But John didn't have that luxury. He swallowed down the pain as he ran, isolating the Runners so he could kill them without the threat of being overwhelmed. His SEAL training taught him how to fend off multiple fighters. You take them down one by one, never all at once.

"Come at me you motherfuckers." He growled.

When it was over, the bodies of the Runners lay on the concrete ground of the top floor. Knife wounds to the throat and behind the neck at the base of the skull were apparent on the Runners. John sat, slouched against the nearest wall, dropping his knives on the ground.

He had been sitting there for about ten minutes, but he wasn't feeling any better. It probably had to do with that one Runner that bit him on the forearm. He felt himself getting weaker as he coughed up blood.

He smiled to himself as he looked up at the sky. Even though smoke filled the air, he could still see the stars and the moon. "I'm sorry, Jane... Naomi... I can't fulfill my promise.." He silently prayed to God to watch over them as he violently coughed out more blood. He died a few minutes later from choking on his own blood.


	2. Chapter 1

_**Present day...**_

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><p>Naomi screamed as she woke up from a nightmare. She had dreamed of her mother in her last moments as she gave her life to buy Naomi more time to escape the horde of Runners. She was only sixteen when that happened. It was an event that haunted Naomi forever. It was her fault that her mother died. She had been a bitch to her that day and ran off like a brat.<p>

The image of her mother being ravaged by Runners filled her head. She also remembered the moment she found a samurai sword and used it to kill the Runners that pursued her. She recalled screaming as she swung the sword again and again and again and again. She shook her head furiously to try and get the memories out in vain.

"Hey."

She looked up, Tess was standing there at the entrance to Naomi's room. When Naomi's mother died, Tess and Joel took her in. She'd been in the smuggling business with them ever since, earning the nickname: Crimson Blade. She had received this nickname when a smuggling assignment turned into a nightmare. She, Joel, Tess, and a group of travelers transporting rations to another city were cornered by bandits.

Out of ammo and out of luck, Naomi had to save the day. Luckily for her, the bandits were only armed with pipes and sticks. Ever since she was seventeen, she had been devoting most of her free time in the art of Kendo and Kenjutsu. When she was five, she took private lessons from an instructor. Drawing on the memories of what she learned in the past, she killed the twelve bandits in less than ten seconds.

Time seemed to have slowed when Naomi killed them, like as if she was on a different plane of existence. She deftly dodged each of the bandits swings and arms and legs flew up in the air with each slash of Naomi's samurai sword. Tess and Joel were shocked by Naomi's "talent." So were the travelers. They spread the word of Naomi's ferocity and that was how she earned the nickname, the Crimson Blade.

"It's six in the morning, why are you screaming?" She asked, slightly irritated by the fact she was awakened.

"Sorry... I had another nightmare."

Tess sighed and sat next to her on the bed. She would never do this if Joel was around. She would never hear the end of it if he caught her being _soft. _"You're having those nightmares because you haven't forgiven yourself, girl."

"Tell me something I don't know.."

"Hey, I'm trying to help you out here. Your mother was a good friend. She wouldn't want you to be like this." Tess wrapped an arm around Naomi. "You've got to let go of what happened. It's not healthy to linger in the past."

"I know... but how do you just.. forget? It was my fault-"

"Stop." Tess said, firmly. "If you keep beating yourself up over this, you'll never be at peace."

When Naomi didn't reply, Tess got up from the bed and looked at her. "Anyways, get ready. We got a bone to pick with Robert. I'll go wake Joel up."

"Again?" Naomi complained, remembering the last time she saw the gangster. She had the blade of her sword against his throat. She wished she killed him that day. "What did he do this time?"

"He stole a weapons cache from us, we're going to get it back." Tess said before exiting Naomi's room.

Naomi sighed before getting out of bed. She went to her closet and pulled out a white shirt and blue denim shorts. She also pulled out a black trench coat and put them all on. She went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. She was gifted with the perfect black hair, never had a single bad-hair-day.

She was about the average height for an Oriental girl which was five feet and six inches. But beyond that, all uses of the word "average" were thrown out the window. Naomi had a heart shaped face framed by intensely black hair that descended to her mid-back. She had fair skin, ample breasts, high cheek bones that models would have sold their children for, and a set of heart stopping curves. She inherited all of these from her mother. The only thing that she inherited from her father... whom she barely knew, was his light blue eyes.

According to some men she pass by on a daily basis, she was "smoking hot."

She slipped on her knee-high socks and slipped into her high-top steel tipped black boots. When Tess asked why she dressed up like a "whore," Naomi replied saying that it throws people off, making them think that she's less of a threat than she actually is. Despite the weird answer, Tess complimented her for using her brain, but ridiculed her saying that she would freeze to death if it was winter. Well, Naomi had a pair of jeans she kept in her one sling backpack in case it did get cold.

"Hurry up!" Tess called to Naomi.

"I'm coming! God..." Naomi said as she grabbed her sword, which was wrapped in cloth and slung it behind her as well.

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><p>"ID please." The military sentry said at the checkpoint. Joel gave him their ID's and the sentry inspected them. "What's your business here?" He asked.<p>

"Visiting a friend." Joel replied.

The sentry gave Joel the ID's back, "all right. Go ahead." He said, opening the gate. Then suddenly a deafening explosion occurred to a military truck not that far from the gate where they were.

"Joel!" Naomi cried out, he had been hit in the arm by a small piece of shrapnel.

"Get out of here!" the military sentry yelled as he closed the gate behind him. "Fireflies!"

"Come on!" Tess said. They sprinted to the apartment complex not far from the gate. Chaos ensued in the streets as gunfire erupted. Inside, Naomi and Tess helped Joel pull out the shrapnel and wrapped an alcohol-sanitized cloth around the wound.

"They're going to close all of the checkpoints, we're going to have to go around the outside." Tess said.

Naomi brightened, she loved going outside the city walls. Nature was always a fascination for her.

"Outside the wall?" Joel said.

"I don't think we have a choice." Naomi said, wanting to go outside the wall.

"Yep, either this or we could just let Robert go." Tess smirked.

"Cute." Joel scoffed.

They walked through the halls of the old apartment. It was run down and most of the people were evicted from the rooms because they couldn't afford to stay. The doors were boarded and some guys stayed outside the rooms.

They geared up in a secret underground hideout they used often.

"Not a lot of ammo." Joel muttered.

"Well, make your shots count." Tess said. She looked at Naomi. "Not bringing a gun again?"

"Nope."

"You know, one day you're going to appreciate the technology of a firearm. That sword of yours won't do you any good against armed bandits." Tess said, folding her arms across her chest.

"Guns are too loud." Naomi retorted. "If you guys would have gotten me a bow, I would feel better."

"Sweetheart," Joel began. "Those are hard to come by, but we'll let you know if we manage to get one." Joel smirked.

"Alright Texas, boost me up." Tess said, standing next to a wall. The second floor of the underground hideout above her.

Joel backed himself against the wall and braced himself as Tess climbed on his hands and grabbed the ledge. When she hoisted herself up, she said, "alright, your turn Naomi."

She sighed as she handed her sword to Tess. "You guys really need to get a ladder for this." She gave a running start and Joel boosted her up to the ledge. Tess helped her up.

Joel was the next challenge. The man practically weighed like a boulder as they helped him up. They took the dark passage up to an old shop that was in ruins.

Naomi basked in the warmth of the sun as she stepped out into the green and lush environment.

"Be careful." Joel called out to them.

"When are we not?" Tess scoffed.

"That a trick question?"

They walked through the plaza and climbed into another old apartment complex. Naomi went all over the place, scavenging for anything they could use. "Hey, Joel. I found some bullets for your gun." She said as she picked up three 9mm rounds.

"Thank you kindly." Joel said as he slid the rounds into the magazine of the pistol.

They descended into the apartment complex.

"You think Robert's still got our guns?" Tess asked.

"For his sake... he better." Joel growled.

"What was in that weapons cache?" Naomi asked, jumping down from a ruined staircase.

"A lot of ammo," Tess began, "and I managed to get us some better pistols."

"All the more reason to get them back." Joel said.

"Hold up." Tess said. "Spores."

They put their gas masks on. Naomi hated wearing them, they hindered her peripheral vision. Her senses were on high alert as they made their way through the apartment.

"Oh shit!" Joel mutters as a part of the ceiling collapses as he moves a vertical support to the side.

"You okay?" Tess asked.

"Yeah." He replies. "Be careful, damn ceiling's falling apart. This way," he says as he slips through the tight space, Naomi and Tess following him.

"Oh shit. Watch it, watchi it." Joel says as he pulls Tess and Naomi quickly through the tight space, avoiding an infected man.

They shined their lights on him.

"Please..." he coughed. "My mask broke.. don't leave me to turn..."

"What do you want to do?" Tess asked Joel.

He pulled out his gun.

"Wait." Naomi said, unsheathing her sword. "Don't waste those bullets."

"You sure you want to do this?" Joel asked. They knew how Naomi felt about killing defenseless people.

"Yeah..." Naomi said as she positioned the tip of the blade at the base of the man's neck. "Rest in peace..." She whispered, then drove the blade through. The man instantly stopped moving, all the tension and energy that was once there, gone.

She cleaned her sword before sheathing it again. Then walked on ahead of Joel and Tess.

"You alright?" Tess asked.

"Yeah, let's just keep moving." Naomi muttered.

They continued further into the apartment complex. It didn't take long before Joel stopped them, "Shh, shh, shh." He had them duck behind a wall as a woman screamed. She was being torn apart by Runners. "Jesus..."

Naomi felt her stomach churn badly at hearing the ever-so-clear sound of the Runners eating the flesh of the woman. She wanted to vomit, but held it back. Even though she's been killing infected for more than three years, nothing will ever prepare her to the horrible reality of the infected. Their need to feed on the living.

"How do you wanna handle it?" Tess asked Joel. Without replying, he crept into the nearby room and strangled the lone Runner to death. After hearing the crack of the base of the neck, he quietly placed the lifeless body on the ground.

He motioned for Naomi to come to him. "I'm going to take one of the Runners in the other room, I need you to take care of the other one."

She could still hear the Runners feasting on the flesh of the woman, but she nodded. Fading to the left, she quietly unsheathed her sword and crept behind one of the Runners. Waiting for Joel's three-count, her heart thumped loudly in her ears. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she tried to keep her breathing quiet. As Joel brought the third finger down, she quickly stood up and got the Runner's attention with a whistle.

As the Runner stood up, Naomi raised her sword and expertly decapitated the head of the Runner. Joel had finished breaking the neck of the other Runner as Naomi bent down to wipe the blood of the Runner off of her sword with its shirt.

She stared at the head she had cut off. Her heart ached as she realized that the man who was once there had just recently turned. Her eyes wandered over to the ravaged woman on the floor and Naomi finally lost it. She quickly went up the apartment complex and when she could find fresh air again, she removed her mask and vomited into the kitchen sink of a ruined apartment room.

"Naomi!" Joel shouted as he and Tess quickly caught up to her. They removed their masks and Tess went over to Naomi and patted her on the back.

"Let it all out, girl..." She said as she rubbed Naomi's back.

Joel stood awkwardly at the ledge of the wall. When Naomi felt _normal _again, she wiped her mouth and they continued on their journey to go pay Robert a visit.

She was silent the whole time as Joel and Tess continued to talk to each other, both glancing back at the poor girl now and then. Tess had just paid a young boy to lookout for any of Robert's men or soldiers with a ration card. When the boy knocked on the window giving them the _all clear_, they emerged into the black market of Boston. Passing by people that looked like they were armed to the teeth.

After Tess paid a man for information about Robert, they walked into a plaza. Robert's men were expecting them.

"Here we go.." Joel muttered.

The three of them stood behind a metal table in case things got out of hand.

"Let us through." Tess said.

The man in front of the trio spoke. "You guys need to turn around and head back if you know what's good for you."

"Our beef isn't with you. We just want Robert. You don't want to do this." Tess warned, her hand on her gun.

"Turn the fuck around and leave now." He demanded.

"We're not going anywhere without Robert." Tess growled.

"Bitch! I will bash your skull unless you turn around and get your dumb ass out of here." He threatened.

Tess and Joel looked at each other. Naomi saw them nod, which meant it was time for a fight.

"Fuck this." Tess said before shooting the guy in the face.

"Fuck! Take cover!" One of the two men said.

Joel, Naomi and Tess took cover behind the metal table. "You ready?" Tess asked them.

"Yeah." Joel muttered.

Naomi just nodded.

"I'm gonna fucking kill you!" One of the men shouted.

"I'll cover you both, get the angle on them." Tess said.

Naomi faded to the right while Joel went left. They jumped from cover to cover, dodging bullets that pinged off of the steel covers. Tess returned their fire, causing the men to duck behind their cover.

Naomi subtly peeked around her cover, she wasn't that far from her target. Joel was just merely a few feet away from blowing the other guy's head off. Naomi unsheathed her sword, but made a big mistake. Her sword glistened in the sunlight and the man saw it and aimed the gun at her.

_Shit!_

She rolled behind cover. Luckily, Tess saved her ass by ending the guy with a bullet to the temple. Joel had already beat the ever living hell out of the other guy and slammed his head into the wall.

Naomi was nearly hyperventilating as she stood up, realizing that she almost died. It was a careless and stupid mistake that she made and it nearly cost her everything.

"Are you okay?" Joel and Tess ran to her, checking to see if she was hit.

"I-I-I'm fine." Naomi said, her voice betraying her.

"Girl, you have gotta be more careful.." Tess said.

"I-I know.." She said. Her hands were shaking like crazy as she tried to hold her sword properly.

"Maybe you should head on back-" Joel began.

"No!" Naomi said, not meaning to sound desperate. "I'm fine... Let's just go get Robert and our guns.."

Joel and Tess looked at each other. "Alright," Tess began. "But you're not going any further unless you have a gun." She said, picking up one of the dead guard's pistol.

Naomi stared at it for a while not wanting to hold it. But after a while, she reluctantly took it and switched the safety of the gun on.

They proceeded through the compound in silence, using stealth as their main strategy. But this time, Naomi stayed back as Joel and Tess did all the work. They weren't going to let her do anything violent until her nerves calmed down.

She froze as she heard the cocking of a pistol behind her. One of the guards that they missed was directly behind her. Her heart began to beat rapidly.

"Stand up." He said.

She obeyed, doing well to hide her fear. She turned around slowly, facing her captor.

He whistled as he gave her the up and down inspection, "it's a shame I have to kill you. I would have loved to fuck you. All day and night." He chuckled.

_In your dreams..._

With lightning speed, she bashed away the gun from pointing at her and kicked the man in the groin with her steel-tipped boot. His eyeballs seemed to have doubled in size as he bent over in shock. But she didn't stop there, she kneed him in the face as he brought his head down then knocked his lights out with a round house kick to the temple.

"Naomi!" Joel saw what happened.

"I'm fine, Joel. Let's just go get Robert, his office is just right there." She pointed at the secluded building in the distance.

He chuckled, "that was one hell of a kick you just did there." He winked, earning a smile from her.

They quietly came up to Robert's office door and Joel opened it. "Oh shit!" He said as he quickly ducked back behind cover. Bullets pinged on the wall where Joel originally was.

"Get the fuck back!" Robert yelled as he fired the gun.

"We just want to talk Robert!" Tess said, peeking a little bit. She jerked back when he fired at her, missing.

"We ain't got fuckin' nothin' to talk about!" Robert yelled.

Naomi tapped Joel on the shoulder, "I'll go around the back and cut him off if he runs." She whispered, before disappearing.

"Be careful." He whispered.

"Put your gun down!" Tess yelled.

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><p>Naomi waited, she could hear Robert coming her way. When his footsteps became louder, she stuck her foot out and he tripped on it, flying through the window and landing in a pile of trash cans.<p>

"Fuck!" He cursed as he tried to get up. He stopped when he felt the cold steel blade on his throat.

Naomi smirked, "hello, Robert."

"H-h-hey, Naomi. We're cool, right? No hard f-feelings?" He said nervously. His hidden hand was reaching for a lid of a trash can.

Tess and Joel come out of the building. "Nice work, kiddo." Joel said, smiling.

Robert grabbed the lid and smacked the sword out of the way and tried to bolt past Tess. She clubbed his kneecap with a metal rod.

Robert stumbled onto the ground, screaming in pain. "Ahh!... Goddammit!"

"We missed you, Robert." Tess said.

"Look," Robert held his hand out to them as if it was his only defense. "Whatever it is you heard, it ain't true, okay? I just want to say-"

"The guns." Tess interrupted. "You want to tell us where the guns are?"

"Yeah, sure... but it's complicated. Alright? Look, alright, just hear me out on this. I gotta-"

Tess kicked him in the face, causing Naomi to wince. She didn't want to watch as Tess beat up a defenseless man.

"Fuck... Stop! Stop! Stop!" He cried out as Tess threatened to break his arm. "I sold 'em! Alright?!" He said.

"Excuse me?" Tess growled.

"I didn't have much of a choice! I owed someone!" He said.

"Who has our guns?" Tess growled, breaking his arm.

He screamed in pain. "The Fireflies! I sold them to the Fireflies!"

"What?..." Tess said.

"Look, they're basically all dead. We can just... Just go in there, finish 'em off. We get the guns. Whaddya say? C'mon, fuck those Fireflies. Let's go get 'em." He said.

Naomi shook her head, Tess said exactly what she was thinking.

"That is a stupid idea." Then she shot him, startling Naomi.

"Why'd you shoot him?!" Naomi asked. "He wasn't a threat to us!" She said.

"Look, Naomi." Tess began. "Grow up! In this kind of world, it's kill or be killed!"

"She's right, kiddo..." Joel said before turning to Tess. "Now what?" He asked.

Tess holstered her pistol and sighed, "we go get our merchandise back."

Joel folded his arms across his chest, "how?"

"I don't know." She said, frustrated. "We explain it to them.. Look, let's go find a firefly."

"You don't have to look very far."

They turned around to see the woman from the wanted posters.

Joel sighed, "there you go, queen Firefly." He said.

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><p><strong>I had to literally play the game to get all the dialogue... Imagine how fun that was.<strong>

**More chapters coming soon, leave a review and hit that favorite/follow button. There will be scenes later on that focus on Naomi.**


	3. Chapter 2

"We're not smuggling shit until I see the guns." Tess growled at Marlene. She had led the three of them to an abandoned kitchen, where Joel was nearly knifed by a girl named Ellie. Marlene asked them to smuggle Ellie to the capitol building that was downtown in exchange for their guns.

Marlene sighed, "Fine... Tess and Joel, follow me. You can verify the weapons and I can get patched up. But Ellie is not crossing that part of town." Marlene looked at Naomi. "I want you to watch over Ellie."

Ellie and Naomi looked at each other. "I don't think that's the best idea." Naomi said.

"She's barely taller than me and you're putting _her _in charge of my protection?" Ellie complained.

Naomi glared at Ellie, "you don't even know me."

"Yeah? And who are you?" Ellie retorted.

Naomi unsheathed her sword, showing it off. "Perhaps this will jog your memory."

Ellie gazed at the sword in awe, "No way! _You're _the Crimson Blade?! That's awesome!" She was star struck.

"No more talking," Marlene said. "Now go with her." She said to Ellie.

"Don't take too long." Naomi said, sheathing her sword. "I'll take her to the North Tunnel. And you," she looked at Ellie. "Stay close to me."

The group separated in different directions. Ellie following Naomi and Joel and Tess following Marlene.

Naomi wanted to vomit again. There were corpses of the Fireflies all over the place as she and Ellie quietly went through the clearing.

"Whoa..." Ellie breathed. "I heard all the shooting, but... what happened?"

"They're Fireflies..." Naomi sighed. "And the same thing is going to happen to us if we're caught by the soldiers."

"You're the pro. I'm just following you."

They took a small stairway to the next street, staying out of sight. There was an army convoy literally not that far from them. One wrong move and they're dead. They entered a deserted apartment yard.

"So, where are we going?" Ellie asked.

Naomi pointed to the open door on the third floor. "Up there, that will get us to the North Tunnel." She said.

"And _how _are we suppose to reach that?" Ellie said.

Naomi looked at Ellie, she looked like she had enough muscle to pull her up. "How strong are you?" She asked.

Ellie arched an eyebrow, "what do you mean?"

"If you're strong enough, then I could boost you up to that staircase. And then you could pull me up."

"Umm... I went to military boarding school? I guess I have some muscle..." Ellie said, sheepishly.

Naomi sighed, shaking her head. "How about you boost me up then?" She suggested.

"No can do.."

Naomi grunted in frustration. "Alright, hold on." She looked around the area to see if there was a ladder... or something they could use to get up there. The sun was setting fast and they had to get indoors before it got dark. She found a garbage dumpster and wheeled it underneath the staircase to use it as an improvised lift. "Alright, we'll use this." She said, climbing on top of it.

"That works." Ellie admitted.

When Naomi pulled herself up to the staircase she turned around and bent down, holding her hand to Ellie, "come on."

"I can reach it myself," Ellie retorted, jumping up and grabbing the edge of the staircase.

Naomi stood up, rolling her eyes as Ellie hoisted herself up. They ascended the staircase and into the open door that led to the halls of an abandoned apartment. Bottles and boxes were littered all over the floor.

"This tunnel," Ellie began. "you and the others use it to smuggle things?"

"Yeah."

"Like _illegal _things?"

"Sometimes, it comes in the job description." Naomi pointed out.

"So..." Ellie's attention shifted to the sword slung behind Naomi's back. "Where'd you get that cool sword?"

She stiffened at the question. "I... I'd rather not talk about it."

Ellie didn't pry further, knowing that it wasn't her place to ask.

"So what's the deal with you and Marlene?" Naomi asked.

"I don't know. She's my friend, I guess." She replied.

"Your _friend?" _Naomi scoffed, recalling on the last memory of Marlene. She and a group of Fireflies were negotiating a trade deal with Joel and Tess. Naomi was skeptical at first, thinking Marlene couldn't be the leader of the Fireflies. Of course... she learned the hard way. Marlene kicked her ass in a one-on-one fight. Naomi had a scar on her back to prove it.

"She knew my mom. They were good friends..." She studied Naomi. "How old are you?"

"Why does that matter to you?" Naomi replied.

"Well... you look like you're sixteen or seventeen. If you were, that would be really awesome, knowing that someone close to my age could kick ass."

That earned a smirk from Naomi. "I'm nineteen. So where are your parents?" She asked.

"Where are anyone's parents?" Ellie pointed out.

Naomi felt her heart ache at that question. Her mother never told her what happened to her father. The only memory of her father was the picture she kept in her bag. The picture had Naomi, her mother and father in it. They were in a park, she was about five years old in the picture. Despite the constant news about an "unknown" virus spreading across the country, their family ignored it and just wanted to enjoy life. Her father was a lean, but rock-hard-muscle toned man. Short blonde hair and blue eyes, and according to her mother, "looked like a sexier Brad Pitt."

"They've been gone a long, long time." Ellie said.

"Yeah... my parents are gone too.." Naomi sighed, controlling her emotions. "So why is Marlene asking us to smuggle you?" She asked.

Ellie sighed, "I'm not suppose to tell you."

"That's okay. I don't really have to know, was just curious."

"Well great." Ellie said.

"Here we are." Naomi said, opening a door into a decent-looking apartment and locking it as soon as Ellie entered. She placed her sword down on the table and picked up the hard cover book that was sitting there. She had left it there in case she ever came back here. She slouched back into the couch and opened the book.

"What'cha reading?" Ellie asked.

"Oh... you wouldn't be interested in it." Naomi said, slightly embarrassed.

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad." She swiped the book from Naomi.

"No!" Naomi said, blushing.

Ellie's eyes widened as she read the passage of the page she was on. "Is this what I think it is?!" She exclaimed. She was reading about a sex scene that was occurring between a boy and a girl that loved each other. She flipped through more pages, "no way." Ellie laughed, tossing the book back to the blushing Naomi. "You're into that romance crap?"

Naomi flipped back to the page she was on. "Yeah.. so what?" Naomi huffed.

Ellie laughed for a little bit. When she finally calmed down, she sat next to Naomi, relaxing on the surprisingly comfortable couch. Her eyes wandered to the sword sitting on the table. She turned to Naomi, "do you mind if I look at it?"

"Don't hurt yourself." She replied, trying to focus on her book.

Ellie stood up and held the sword in her hands, testing the weight. She unsheathed the blade and held it up, looking at the carbon-steel. A carved inscription in symbols, that she didn't know that was written on the blunt side of the blade, caught her attention. "What's this mean?" She showed Naomi.

Naomi looked up from her book at what Ellie was referencing. "It's in Japanese. It means, _Never hesitate._" She said before returning to her book.

"What's that mean?" Ellie asked, sheathing the blade and placing it back gently on the table.

Naomi closed her book and set it down. The sun had set and the sky began to darken as gray clouds covered the sky. She stood up, picking up her sword and unsheathed it. She took a ready stance and swiped at the air. "What it means is that if I even hesitate for one millisecond when facing, say a hunter, it could cost my life." She swung at the air again, the sword creating a sharp _fwip _wind sound as it clashed with the air pressure. "Swing the sword like your life depended on it." She said, sheathing the sword. "But this also applies to other aspects, not just swords. I'm sure you're aware of that."

Ellie nodded, pulling out her switchblade and clicking it open. "Yeah... back in boarding school, the drill instructor basically burned that in our minds. _Kill or be killed. _Something like that." She said before putting her knife away.

Naomi remembered what Tess said to her earlier. Those exact words rang in her head. Tess was right, it was _kill or be killed. _But Naomi had morals that her mother taught her to keep in case somehow, the world was suddenly infected-free and people hugged each other. She was beginning to doubt what her mother had taught her. Tess kept telling Naomi, countless times, that it was a cruel world.

It started to rain as Ellie took a nap. Naomi stayed up on watch.

_"Riley...__" _Naomi looked at Ellie, she was talking in her sleep. _"Riley... we shouldn't be here.."_

Naomi wondered how much the girl had been through. It probably didn't come close to as horrific as her past, but it was bad enough that Ellie was having her own nightmares.

The lock on the front door began to turn. Naomi instantly shot up from the couch and stealthily dashed to the side, sword brandished. As the door opened and a figure stepped in, she held the blade to the figure's throat.

"Easy, kiddo. It's just us." Joel said.

Naomi sighed and sheathed her sword. "What took you guys so long?"

"Soldiers were fuckin' everywhere." Tess muttered.

Ellie awakened, "How's Marlene?" she asked, worried.

"She'll make it." Tess said, then turned to Naomi. "We saw the merchandise, it's a hell of a lot of guns. Me and Joel decided to smuggle the kid to the capitol building."

"The '_kid' _is right here, ya know." Ellie said, yawning.

"You want to come with us or head back to our apartment?" Tess asked.

Naomi did want to go back home, but she came this far already. "I'll go."

"Alright," Tess looked at Naomi.

"What?"

"It's cold outside with all the rain." Tess smirked, "put on some damn pants."

Naomi rolled her eyes and stepped into the other room, unslinging her backpack and pulling out the pair of jeans she brought. She shrugged out of her shorts and slipped on the jeans. Since it was raining, she zipped up the inner layer of her trench coat so it would protect her from the rain.

"Alright, I'm ready." Naomi said, emerging from the room. She had already started the generator for the elevator.

As the group descended on the elevator, Naomi asked, "So who's waiting for us at the capitol building?"

"Marlene said that there would be Fireflies that traveled all the way from another city waiting for us there." Tess glanced at Ellie, "girl must be important if they came this far. So what's the deal with you? You some bigwig's daughter?"

"Something like that." Ellie replied. "So how long is this all gonna take?"

"If everything goes as planned, we should get you to the Fireflies in a few hours." As Joel climbed up the ladder to the surface, Tess turned to Ellie. "Once we get out there, I need you to follow our lead and stay close. Naomi will be watching our rear."

"Yeah, of course." Ellie said.

"Hold up, there's a patrol," Joel said from the top of the ladder. After a few moments, "alright, we're good. Come on up, kiddo." He said to them as he held the cover up for them.

After they all got out of the hole, Naomi took a moment to feel the rain land on her face. It was always refreshing to feel the rain. Plus it was basically a free shower. The military charges two ration cards to use their running water for showers in a building downtown... there was no way Naomi was going to pay _that _much for a five-minute shower.

"This rain ain't gonna do us any good." Joel muttered as he lead the way.

"Holy shit..." Ellie breathed. "I'm actually outside." She said, excited.

They found a trailer to climb up through, "up this way," Joel said. Not a moment later did they hear him grunt in pain.

"Don't do anything stupid," a woman guard said to Joel, pointing the gun at him.

Naomi felt the barrel of a gun against the back of her neck. "Move" a deep voice said. She blew out her cheeks as she and the others stepped out of the trailer and sat on their knees as they were scanned for infection.

"_Oh man, oh man." _Ellie whispered, nervously as the second guard began scanning her. As the device beeped she pulled out her knife and stabbed the man in the leg. He grunted in pain, "Sorry!" Ellie exclaimed.

Naomi acted fast, unsheathing her sword and driving it through the other guard's chest. If used right, a samurai sword can pierce through Kevlar as if it was a thin shirt. The guard staggered backwards as Naomi expertly pulled out her sword. Tess had shot the other guard.

"Oh... oh fuck." Ellie muttered. "I thought we were just gonna hold them up or something."

Naomi helped Ellie on her feet as Tess picked up the scanning device. "Oh shit," she said, showing Joel, "look."

Joel's expression darkened, the device read positive for infection. "Jesus Christ..." he muttered, glaring at Ellie. "Marlene set us up? Why are we smuggling an infected girl?" He growled.

Naomi looked at Ellie and jumped back away from her. "You're infected?"

"I'm not infected." Ellie said.

"No? So this thing was lying?!" Joel shouted as he tossed the scanner away, taking a step towards Ellie.

"I can explain!"

"You better explain, fast." Tess said.

Ellie rolled up her sleeve, "Look at this! This is three weeks old!"

Tess scowled. "No, everyone turns in two days. So stop bullshitting." She growled.

"It's three weeks, I swear! Why would she set you up?" Ellie said, desperate.

"I ain't buying it." Joel growled.

Their conversation was cut short by a patrol SUV approaching.

"Oh shit." Ellie said.

"RUN!" Joel shouted to everyone. They all ran and ducked into the embankment below them just as the vehicle arrives.

"Holy shit." One of the guards said.

"I got two dead uniforms. I repeat, two casualties in Sector Twelve. Requesting immediate backup." The other guard said.

"We just talked to them a minute ago." The first guard said, horrified.

"Those fuckin' stragglers are around here somewhere," the second guard growled. "Secure the area."

"Follow me, quick!" Tess hissed as she lead them to a different cover behind debris.

Search lights began to shine all over the place as the group silently crept by, luckily the rain shrouded most of the noise they made.

"Goddammit! They're everywhere." Joel cursed.

They avoided search lights and took any detours they could find through pipes and around walls. They avoided flashlights as Joel navigated them through the trenches. When they reached an abandoned building, they took a quick moment to catch their breath.

"We're going to get caught," Naomi muttered.

"We won't if we stay quiet," Joel said as they began moving again.

They navigated through a garage into a military-filled ruin.

"Holy shit! There's so many of 'em out there. How are we suppose to get past 'em?" Ellie said, worried.

Naomi agreed with her, there were way too many guards. She huffed as she came up with a _really _dumb plan. "Guys," she whispered, getting their attention. She sighed before speaking, "I'm going to cause a distraction and you guys make a run for it."

"No!" Joel hissed. "That's suicide!"

"Don't worry, I'm faster alone." Naomi breathed, the rain making it so cold that she could see her own breath. "Now hurry up and go. Wait for the signal and then _run._"

"Naomi-"

"Don't." Naomi glared, "if you guys want those guns that badly, this is the only way you're going to get through. Don't worry, I'll meet up with you guys at the skyscrapers." She tried to hide her fear that wanted to escape, this really was a dumb plan. "Now go!" She hissed.

After Joel and Tess looked at each other for a brief moment, they nodded. "We better see you at the skyscrapers.." Joel muttered before they disappeared behind the cover of the ruin.

Naomi shook as she crouched behind an old car. She had her sword in one hand and the gun that Tess gave her in the other. She controlled her breathing as she waited for the right moment, her heart thumping loudly in her ears. Then she finally stood up and fired a shot into the air. The large searchlight immediately shone on her and she RAN.

"After her!" the sergeant ordered the other soldiers. They all converged on her as she ran, dodging bullets.

Ellie and the others crouched behind a wall in silence, worried out of their minds for Naomi.

"Let's go..." Joel reluctantly said after checking to see if the area was clear.

"Wait! We can't just leave her!" Ellie cried out.

"Don't worry," Tess said, her voice breaking. "She's a tough girl, she'll meet us at the skyscrapers.." Fear for Naomi washed over Tess's face.

* * *

><p>Naomi hid behind a wall of an abandoned apartment. The soldiers were closing in on her, their lights becoming brighter. She controlled herself from whimpering, wanting to panic and freak out. She bit down on her fear, knowing that it would kill her if it overwhelmed her.<p>

"That bitch is around here somewhere." A guard said.

"Search the area." The sergeant ordered.

There was a vehicle with the guards too, armed with a mounted M2 Browning that fired the huge .50 Caliber round. If that thing started shooting at her cover, she would be torn to pieces. A round that powerful could pierce through metal like it was nothing.

She held her breath as the guards came closer and closer and closer. They were literally around the corner. She clenched her sword tightly, waiting to strike. She wouldn't... refused to go down without a fight.

Then a miracle happened. Not the kind that you would expect though. Her eyes widened as screeches filled the air. The screeches belonged to Clickers.

"Clickers!" A guard shouted before he screamed in pain as three clickers overwhelmed him.

There were at least twenty Clickers swarming the guards. Because Naomi was silent, they ran past her and went for the guards. Her heart went berserk from staring at Death face-to-face. When she finally rearranged her thoughts, she used the distraction to get the hell out of there. The M2 Browning was loud as it poured its bullets into the masses of Clickers.

It only made it worse.

Naomi ducked into a damaged sewage pipe sticking out of the mud wall nearby as SWARMS of Clickers and Runners converged on the loud noise of the machine gun. She felt like she was going to scream and panic as hundreds of infected were literally above her and around her. It took every shred of sanity to keep her from screaming in terror and hyperventilating.

It felt like an eternity before the rumbling of the infected stopped. The machine gun was still firing, but the infected were close to overwhelming the military vehicle. After calming down a little, Naomi got out of there and headed for the skyscrapers.

Luck had saved her.


	4. Chapter 3

**So I realized something. While I was planning out the scenes for later in this story, there is a very good chance that I may have to change the story rating from T to M. So just keep a look out for that, don't want you to think that this story is gone when you can't find it under the Rated T section.**

* * *

><p>Joel, Ellie and Tess sat in the interior of the ruined skyscraper, waiting for Naomi. They began to worry, she hadn't met up with them in almost an hour. They heard the shooting, but still hoped she was alive.<p>

Joel stood up and glared at Ellie. "This is all your fault." He growled.

"My fault?! Why the fuck is this my fault?!" Ellie shot up from where she was sitting. "You're the fucking one who wasn't careful enough! If you hadn't gotten yourself fuckin' caught she'd still be here with us!" Ellie yelled, getting ready to attack Joel.

"Hey, hey!" Tess stopped Ellie from tackling him. "We're all at fault here! Alright?" She huffed out a sigh and looked at Joel. "Do you want to continue without Naomi?" She asked.

"No," he said, not hesitating. "We wait for her."

"Joel, there is no possible way she could have survived. She was being chased by a whole squad, armed with a machine gun." Tess pointed out.

"We owe it to her to wait!" Joel growled. "How many times has she saved our asses? I know she's still alive, let's just wait a little longer." He huffed, pacing the floor with his arms crossed. Not even Ellie could argue with him about waiting, but she was still pissed that Joel blames her.

Joel really liked Naomi. Ever since she joined him and Tess, they bonded really well. He almost considered her as another daughter...

"I shouldn't have let her do that.." Joel said.

"If she didn't, we all would be dead." Tess said, not wanting to finish the next part. But Joel knew what she meant.

"So it's better that she die than all of us?" He growled at her.

Tess had enough of Joel, "you need to stop. I'm just as fuckin' worried about her as much as you are." She snapped back. After a glaring contest with him, she sighed. "Look, we'll wait a few more minutes. If she's alive and she doesn't show up, she knows where to meet us... and if she isn't-"

"She's alive, dammit!" Joel yelled.

"That's enough from you!" Tess finally lost it. "Do I have to keep repeating myself?" She snarled. "I'm just as worried about her, alright?"

Joel huffed a sigh, "right. Sorry.."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Ten Minutes Later...<strong>_

* * *

><p>Naomi went back the way she ran from. There were still guards, but not as much. She could easily sneak by them with the cover of the darkness from the rain clouds. The rain also made visibility really bad, which was a good thing and a bad thing for her. They couldn't see or hear her, but it applied to her as well. If there was a Runner or a Clicker or even a guard around a corner, she wouldn't know until it was too late.<p>

_God damn it! _

She ducked behind a wall to get an idea of her surroundings. It was where the others hid when she was about to lure the previous guards away from them. There should be a drainage pipe close to her.

_Hopefully it isn't flooded..._

She kept her sword out the entire time along with her gun. She nearly fell over the edge of a small cliff and decided that it was probably better that she kept her sword sheathed. She wouldn't want it to stab her in case she fell. She found the drainage pipe that was half-filled. She managed to find dry ground again inside an abandoned building.

She sneezed, realizing that she was probably catching a cold. She sighed, realizing that she would have to stay put until the rain lightened up. She took out a handful of dry lint from her backpack that she kept in a plastic zip-lock bag. Now those bags were hard to come by nowadays. She grabbed anything wooden she could find in the vicinity and piled them up on the small dirt hole in the concrete.

She looked around, making sure no one was in there with her. After finding nothing, she unsheathed her sword and picked up a smooth stone. She soaked her sword in the rain and began to sharpen it near the pile of wood and lint, creating sparks. After about the hundredth time, the sparks created an ember in the lint and she blew into the pile and the embers began to intensify eventually into a small fire.

She gathered up more wood in the vicinity, mainly from a molded bookshelf which she broke down into smaller pieces, and fed it to the fire. She hovered her hands over the fire and tried to warm herself up. She didn't even notice that she was shivering until the warmth finally hit her.

She fed more wood into the fire and laid her wet clothes beside the fire to dry them off. She heard the distinct sound of footsteps and faded into the shadows with her sword and backpack, leaving her clothes by the fire.

"Hello? Anyone here?" A deep voice called out. Naomi peeked around the wall she was hiding behind. To her shock, a man that looked like he was in her age range was standing near the fire. "I know someone's here," he said again, not as a threat, but for clarification.

Naomi looked down at herself, she only had panties on. Disobeying her survival instincts, she spoke to him from behind the wall. "Who are you?"

The man immediately turned to where she was hiding. "I don't want any trouble, just trying to get out of the rain." She caught a glimpse of a pistol holstered on the side of his leg and a rifle slung behind him.

"If you don't mean any harm, toss your guns to the side." She said.

"Alright," he obeyed.

"Turn around, I won't hurt you." She said.

He hesitated. "Why? Are you shy?" He chuckled, despite how serious the situation was. He had no clue who was behind that wall and she didn't know who he was.

"No. Those are my clothes by the fire... I'm... half-naked..." She said, reluctantly.

He glanced at the clothes, "Oh... Um, here." He picked them up and approached her.

"Don't come any closer." She threatened, making him come to a halt.

"Alright, alright, what do you want me to do?" He asked.

"Toss it."

He threw the clothes at the opening and she plucked them out of the air. After putting them on, despite them being half-dried, she stepped out into the open, her gun still pointing at him.

"I thought you weren't going to hurt me." He said.

"I'm not, but if you try anything I will kill you." She snarled.

"I know, I know... Can I at least get some of the warmth from that fire of yours?" He asked, hands raised in the air.

Naomi tried to hide her blush. The guy before her was actually the most handsome man she'd ever seen. He was about half a foot taller than her. One name came to her mind that she remembered clearly from an old pop magazine she read when she was eighteen. Drew Seeley. This guy looked like an exact copy of that actor.

"Fine," she said, keeping the gun trained on him.

"Look, I really mean no harm." He said, sitting down and hovering his hands over the fire. "I'm just passing through, trying to regroup with other people that I'm with."

"Who are you?" she asked.

"You know, it's usually more polite to introduce yourself before asking someone else for their name." He winked.

She sighed, "Naomi."

"Now that wasn't so hard was it?" He chuckled. "Name's Michael."

"What are you doing out here? How'd you get separated from your group?" She asked.

"It's a long story..." he began.

She looked out the hole where they came from, the rain was still pouring down like a waterfall. "I've got time." She said.

"Well, first thing you gotta know about me is this." He reached into his shirt and pulled out a pendant. It had the engraving of the Fireflies symbol on it.

"You're a Firefly." She said.

"Yep. I was with a group that traveled all the way here from Salt Lake City, Utah. You know where that is?"

She shook her head. "Never heard of it."

He faked a frowned, "that sucks. It's a beautiful place. you should check it out sometime. Anyways, I was part of the guard detail for a group of doctors that wanted to come all the way out here. They kept talking about this _cure _that would be here."

"No way, a cure? For the infection?" She asked, intrigued.

"Yeah, it sounds too good to be true, right? But when we got here-we were stationed in a nearby subway not far from here-we were ambushed by a bunch of soldiers." Pain washed over his expression. "I fled like a coward..." He shook his head. "That's how I got here." He finished.

Despite everything that happened, she lowered her guard. Putting away the gun. "Don't beat yourself up." She said. "I probably would have done the same if I were you."

"Leave your buddies to die?" He asked, scoffing.

"No. Survive." She pointed out.

Michael stiffened. It had been a long time since he heard that word. In the Fireflies, there was no real need for that instinct. Everyone in the Fireflies treated each other like good friends and looked out for each other. Food and water was never scarce, it was the good life. Now here he was, receiving a hard truth from a beautiful girl in a run down piece of shit place.

"How old are you?" He asked.

She arched an eyebrow, "why does that matter?"

"I'm twenty-three years old and I haven't really accepted that yet. But you look younger than I do and here you are." He pointed out.

She sighed, "I'm nineteen. I learned that survival comes first when I was just seventeen. Some friends taught me that, they're actually waiting for me right now."

"But you can't go because of the storm."

She nodded. "So where are you headed off to? I mean..." She looked at him. "Your Firefly friends are all probably gone right? Why go back?"

He sighed, face-palming. "Two reasons. One, there might still be some of them left at the capitol building. Two, I left something back there that's important to me." He looked at her, "don't laugh, but I left this toy back there. It belonged to my little brother..." He couldn't finish.

"I understand." She said, digging through her backpack. She pulled out the family photo that she always kept with her and showed it to him. "I would charge through a pack of Runners to try and get this back."

He nodded, "finally. Someone who understands sentimentality."

They were quiet for a while, just focusing on trying to warm up and constantly feed the fire.

"So why are you out here?" Michael asked her.

"I... I'm a smuggler. I was with two others, my friends, and we were smuggling a girl to the same capitol building you were talking about. I got separated from them and I'm trying to get to them, but this storm is in my way."

"Well..." he began. "For their sake, I hope they don't encounter the soldiers."

"Same here..." she sighed. She was exhausted and her leg muscles were aching like hell. But she didn't trust Michael enough to fall asleep in front of him.

He saw her eyes drooping close. "I could stay up on watch if you want." He offered. When she glared at him he held his hands up, "I'm not that kind of person, I swear. You can trust me."

"Why should I?"

"Because you aren't dead." He bluntly said, startling her. "If I knew you were a threat from the start, I would've killed you."

She scoffed, "you couldn't kill me even if you tried," laying down on the floor.

"I think I could, _Crimson Blade. _That is your nickname right?" He was amused by her reaction. "You're a legend back in Utah, I'm actually honored to meet you in person."

"Usually people who say that aim to kill me in a fight." She giggled.

"Like I said, I don't want any trouble." He said, leaning against the nearest wall and holstering his gun that he threw aside. He had his rifle laid across his lap.

"Fine, I'll-"

"Kill me if I try anything." He finished for her, winking. That earned a smile from her.

Naomi closed her eyes and sleep overtook her quickly.

* * *

><p>"Naomi!"<p>

Her eyes snapped open, Michael was trying to shake her awake. "We gotta go, now," He whispered.

She immediately sat up and looked outside the hole. The rain had stopped, but the moon was still high in the sky. She probably wasn't asleep for longer than half-an-hour.

_"Search the area!" _Her blood ran cold. There were soldiers nearby. The fire had been put out, probably by Michael.

"We gotta go," he whispered as he helped her on her feet. "I'll take point." He said.

They dodged flash lights as they proceeded to the skyscrapers. Michael held his rifle as they ran. She stopped when he stopped, slowed when he slowed, followed when he gave to O.K. When they finally reached the skyscrapers and avoided the patrols, they took a moment to breathe behind a wall.

"You sure you're nineteen?" Michael joked, panting.

"What's that suppose to mean?" She smirked.

"Well, you're tougher than you look." He winked.

They continued on their way.

_"Joel! We've waited for too fucking long! We have to leave, now!" _

Naomi recognized that voice, it was Tess.

_"Just a little bit longer-"_

"Hey!" Naomi shouted after they soon came to view. They were taking shelter in an office room not far off the ground.

"Naomi!" Joel exclaimed and jumped down. Relief flooded his face as he ran to her, but it quickly went away when he saw Michael and pulled out his pistol. "Who the fuck are you?!" Joel growled.

"Whoa, whoa, easy." Michael said, putting a hand in front of him.

"Joel, put your gun down!" Naomi hissed, pushing his gun down. "This is Michael, he's a Firefly."

That caught Tess and Ellie's attention as they came closer. "You're a Firefly?" Tess asked.

"Yeah," Michael replied. "Corporal Michael. I'm with the team that was sent to the capitol building."

"What the hell are you doing all the way out here?" She asked.

"The team was ambushed by soldiers in a subway nearby... some of them might still be alive, but I fled the area." Michael said.

"Dead?" Joel breathed. "But, what the hell do we do then?" He asked.

"One of my buddies said that if anything went wrong, I was to head to Colorado. You know where that is?"

"Yeah, one of my friends went to college there." Joel muttered.

"Yeah, my buddy said that they would help me if anything happened." Michael said.

"Shit... That's pretty far, ya know." Tess muttered.

"It is, but there's a lab there that the Fireflies owned." He looked at Ellie. "Is this the girl? The cure?"

She nodded.

"So she says," Joel shook his head.

"If we take her to Colorado, they'll handle everything from there. That is if my buddies are dead.."

"Well let's go find out then. To the capitol building it is." Naomi said.

"Sure thing, just gotta get around that giant bomb crater there." Joel pointed to the giant hole. "The only way through is the skyscraper."

* * *

><p>They entered the Goldstone building and navigated through a series of halls and rooms. Naomi went around and scavenged for anything they could use from tape to cloth and alcohol.<p>

"Damn it.. Tess help me open this." Joel said to her. The door before him was sealed close. They rammed it open and Joel stepped out into the hallway.

"Joel!" Tess yelled. A Clicker tackled Joel and went to bite him. That fast, Naomi was there, sword out and decapitated the Clicker's head with an upward swing.

"Thanks, kiddo.." Joel breathes as they continue through the groaning building. It had begun raining again and the storm shook the building.

"Now what?" Ellie said. They came to a staircase that was blocked off by debris.

"Ahh.. this is crazy." They looked at Tess who jumped out of the window onto a platform. "Just don't look down."

"Wha- Are you serious?!" Ellie exclaimed.

"That woman's got guts," Michael said, following her lead.

Naomi was the last one to jump on after Joel. Despite Tess's warning, she looked down and immediately felt dizzy. They had to be a hundred stories above the ground. She looked away, shaking her head into focus. Relief immediately overwhelmed her as she set her feet on ground once again inside the building.

"Runners." Tess said as they ducked behind a wall. Below them were four Runners and one Clicker.

"Let me check it out." Naomi said.

"No," Joel stopped her. "You've done enough suicidal things for one day. I'll check it out."

"I'll cover you," Michael said, following Joel down. He slung his rifle behind him and pulled out the 12-inch KA-BAR knife that he had sheathed on the side of his left leg.

They crept up to a lone Runner and Joel let Michael quietly kill it. He crept up to it and with lightning speed, grabbed the Runner by the left shoulder from behind and drove the knife into its throat, silencing any screeches that it wanted to let out.

Joel picked up an empty glass bottle and tossed it far to a secluded and tight area. After most of the infected ran to the source of the noise, Joel strangled another lone Runner to death. After hearing the windpipe and the neck snap, he set the body down quietly.

After dispatching the remaining infected, "Alright, come on down." Joel called to the girls.

"I'm impressed." Tess said.

"Pssh. Let's just get outta here." Joel muttered.

Michael cleaned his knife before sheathing it. He followed behind Naomi, "so what'd ya think of my performance?" He asked playfully.

"You were sloppy," She winked.

"Like you could've done any better," he said, teasing her.

"I could." She said.

"Maybe next time I'll let you have some action then." He winked.

"I'm looking forward to it." She smiled.

Joel was eying them as they proceeded. They were a bit too _comfortable _with each other.

They descended a part of the building where the floors have caved in. At the bottom, they reach a subway.

"This is where I was ambushed, be cautious." Michael warned.

There was a corpse leaning against the wall. "Look at his sleeve," Tess said. "Firefly."

Michael cursed. "Dammit!" he hissed.

Naomi rubbed his back, like how her mother would to her. "Sorry for your loss.."

"What're you apologizing for?" He chuckled. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"Well.." She really didn't know why she said that. It was just something her mother used to say whenever something bad happened to a friend of her's. It just felt like the right thing to say, but apparently not.

"It's alright." Tess said, holding up a map she picked from the dead Firefly. "This guy is from the Quarantine zone, not from out of state."

"Let's keep moving." Joel said, stuffing a Molotov into his pack.

Deeper in the subway, they encountered more Clickers. A LOT more Clickers than last time.

"Hate to break it to you, boy." Joel whispered. "But I doubt your buddies are alive if they had to get through this mess."

Naomi glared at Joel who just shrugged her off.

"Whatever." Michael said, blankly.

"How do you want to handle this?" Tess asked.

"Quietly," Naomi answered, already creeping up to the nearest clicker with her sword out.

"I swear, that girl is a bad-ass." Ellie commented quietly.

"Agreed." Michael whispered.

Naomi decapitated the Clicker and moved on to the others. She was like a ninja in the dark area. The only indication of her immediate location to the others was when the body of a Clicker suddenly fell. When the others couldn't hear any Clickers, they crept out of their spot and met with Naomi at the exit of the subway. She had already climbed on top of the ledge and let down the ladder.

"Holy shit. We actually made it." Ellie said as they stepped out of the abandoned subway.

"Everyone okay?" Joel asked.

After a simultaneous "yes," they continued on their journey to the capitol building.

"Naomi, where'd you learn to fight like that?" Ellie asked.

"Just experience and constant practice." She replied.

"You could give Marlene a run for her money." Michael laughed.

She cringed at hearing Marlene's name, suddenly remembering the time she kicked Naomi's ass. "I doubt it." She muttered.

"Climb on up," Joel had fetched a dumpster and placed it against a totaled big rig truck's trailer. They followed Joel over the truck and Joel begins to pull on the chain into a garage.

**(_A/N: It's sort of getting a bit boring writing about what happens. I'm just gonna skip to the part where they enter the capitol building. I'm sure you all know what happens prior. Sorry, I just want to focus on Naomi.)_**

* * *

><p>"No, no, no!" Tess said.<p>

Corpses of the Fireflies laid on the floor of the building, blood pooled around the bodies. Michael immediately ran over to the nearest corpse and placed two fingers on the neck. No pulse.

"Dammit!" He said, tossing his rifle on the ground. He sighed in frustration.

Naomi went over to him.

"So what happens now?" Ellie asked, lost.

"What are you doing Tess?" Joel asks her. She was frantically searching the pockets of the dead Fireflies.

"There's gotta be a map to their lab in Colorado." She said, desperately.

"How far are we gonna take this?" Joel asked, frustrated. He wanted to go home.

"As far as we need to go!" Tess snapped. She sighed, "I'm... I'm not going anywhere. This is my last stop.."

"What?"

"Our luck had to run out sooner or later...

"What the hell are you going on about-" Joel said.

"No. Don't- don't touch me." She slapped Joel's hand away.

Naomi's eyes widened in shock as she realized what happened. She recalled the scream Tess made back at the museum when a Runner tackled her. "No." She breathed.

"Holy shit. She's infected." Ellie said.

Michael reached for his rifle and pointed it at Tess. "This whole time you were infected?!" He growled, he was still pissed that his friends were all dead.

"Put your goddamn gun down!" Joel said, pointing his pistol at Michael.

"Stop!" Naomi said standing in between them, then turned to Michael. "That lab you were talking about, in Colorado. Do you know where it is?" She asked.

He shook his head, lowering his gun. "Even if I did, there's no way we could get her there in time to find a cure for the infection. I'm sorry." He said. Naomi noticed that he was not his usual flirtatious and fun self. The deaths of his friend must have hit him harder than she thought.

"You've got to get this girl to Tommy," Tess said to Joel. "He use to be a Firefly too, he'll know where the lab is in Colorado."

"No, this crusade ends here." Joel growls.

They all heard the noise of a vehicle outside.

"Oh shit, it's the soldiers." Ellie said.

"Go." Tess began. "I'll hold them off and buy you some time, but you all have to run."

"No!" Naomi shouted. "We can't just leave you here!" She said.

"I'm as good as dead already! Now go!"

"Dammit!" Joel cursed. "Come on, let's go!" He said to the others.

Naomi had to pull Michael back, he wanted revenge for his friends. When they were behind locked doors, he began to try to get back into the room.

"Stop!" Naomi said to him.

"Let me go!" Joel was holding him back. "I'll fucking kill every last one of them! I will avenge my friends!"

"You're going to die!" Joel yelled, tossing him to the ground. When he tried to get back up, Naomi was there, pinning him to the ground.

"Stop and think for a moment!" She said, not wanting him to die for a vain cause.

"Get off of me." He snarled.

"Would your friends want you to die here? What happened to wanting to survive?" She said, irritated.

He stopped for a moment, huffing out angry breaths.

"We have to go!" Ellie said, following Joel up the stairs.

Naomi looked at Michael, "if you stay, I'm staying."

His eyes widened. "You wouldn't"

"I fucking would.." She said.

After a moment of hearing gun shots in the other room, he finally calmed down and followed Naomi to meet with Joel and Ellie. The sound of Tess crying out in pain filled the air.

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><p><strong>I'm going to stop it here, otherwise you're going to be reading a ten thousand word chapter.<strong>

**Thanks for reading. Leave a review and hit that favorite/like button.**


	5. Chapter 4

**In this chapter, I'm going to be introducing a new category for the infected. Look forward to it!**

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><p>"No..." Naomi breathed. She and Michael were peeking over the edge of the second floor. Tess lay on the stone floor, riddled with holes from bullet entries. Blood had begun to pool around her.<p>

"Target neutralized. Search the area for her accomplices." The guard in charge ordered.

"Yes, sir."

"They're gonna be here soon." Ellie whispered to Joel. They all followed Joel to another wing of the capitol building. As they roamed the halls, Michael caught a glimpse of a flash from a scope.

"Get down!" He yelled as he pulled Naomi back. The .50 Caliber round that was fired from a sniper missed Naomi by a few millimeters.

"They're in the hall!" A guard called out, followed by others.

When Naomi and Michael tried to get to Joel and Ellie, they were stopped by bullets that flew through the opening between them and Joel.

"We have to find another way around!" Michael said over the gunfire.

"Joel!" Naomi said, getting his attention. "We'll meet up with you guys at Tommy's place!"

"What?!" Joel ducked as a bullet pinged by his cover. "No! We fuckin' stay together!"

"If we don't split up, we're all gonna fucking die!" Michael yelled to Joel.

Joel looked at him, at Naomi, then at Ellie. He returned to Michael, "you keep her safe!" He growled before taking Ellie with him.

"Come on!" Michael said to Naomi. They quickly got out of there before the guards found them.

* * *

><p>Naomi and Michael had dispatched the guards on the ground floor and proceeded further into the city away from the capitol building. When they thought they were safe, they took refuge in an abandoned restaurant and tried to catch their breaths.<p>

Naomi screamed in frustration as she began to make a mess of the already ruined restaurant. She kicked tables and chairs over and punched out glass from shattered windows.

"Hey, hey!" Michael said, grabbing her. He was expecting her to fight him, but she broke down, sobbing. She turned around and wept into his chest.

"She's gone..." she whimpered, muffling her cries into his shirt. Ever since her mother passed away, Tess was like a second mother to Naomi. She looked out for her and taught her survival skills, often pointing out her flaws.

Michael was caught off guard by this sudden action, but was only reminded of the death of his friends back in the capitol building. He led Naomi into the back of the restaurant and held her close to him as he silently wept for his friends. Remembering the days when they were just recruits for the Fireflies, joking around and having fun.. Now they were gone.

The sun had begun to set when they were finished letting out their sorrow. It was then that Naomi realized how close she was to Michael. It was very intimate and she immediately backed away. "Let's keep moving," she said, drying her eyes.

"Yeah.." he said, leading the way. He knew the way to the hydroelectric dam in Wyoming, but they were very low on supplies. They searched the area for anything they could use from food and water, to common tools. They came up with three fully-filled water bottles and a box of granola bars, some extra ammo for Naomi's pistol and Michael's rifle, and supplies for a make-shift first-aid kit.

"It's amazing how much shit people forget about or overlook." Michael chuckled, trying to liven the mood. He looked at Naomi, who still had a graven expression over Tess's death and immediately felt like he should do something.

"Hey-"

"Shh." Naomi's expression changed in an instant. One moment she was grieving, the next she was alert and ready for a fight. What a woman...

The next moment was filled with ear-splitting screeching. Naomi and Michael covered their ears in vain to try and block out the painful noise. When it finally stopped, they looked at each other. Their ears were still ringing the same way a soldier's ears would be ringing if an explosive detonated near him.

Naomi stared wide-eyed at what she was seeing. Michael followed her gaze and he too stared in shock.

"What is _that?" _Michael asked, his hearing returning. Not that far from them and standing on a bus was an infected, but this was different. It wasn't a Runner, Clicker, or a Bloater. No... this was different. It was a hooded, infected woman that had two thick and razor sharp bony blades for arms. The hood flew back and Naomi and Michael saw that it's head resembled that of a Clicker, but it's eyes were still present. Which meant that the thing could see them.

Naomi remembered reading about sightings of different categories of infected, some that she hoped she would never encounter. The _thing _before them was classified as a Siren. And like it's namesake, it screeched really loudly and sharply.

"That's a Siren!" Naomi cried out.

"A what?!" Michael exclaimed. Before she could answer, she drew her pistol and began shooting at it. Michael followed her lead and pulled out his rifle.

They were filled with fear when the Siren just deflected the bullets with it's bone blade arms like it was nothing. It screeched again, and Naomi and Michael dropped to their knees, covering their ears with their hands. Then the Siren charged at them with a primal ferocity.

Naomi barely was able to recover in time and unsheathe her sword before the Siren was only centimeters from her. She faded low to the left under the Siren's swing and brought her sword up for an upward slash. She was shocked to discover that the Siren blocked her attack with it's arm blades.

_Does this thing have intelligence?!_

Naomi and Michael were in serious trouble if this infected still retained it's ability to think. Not much information was written about the Siren, the only piece of info that was written was this: If spotted, RUN.

"Michael!" Naomi stopped him. She was fending off the Siren's attacks while trying to maintain focus through all the screeching. He was getting ready to attack with his knife. "We have to run!" She said. "We can't fight this thing!"

"What?! But it will kill us!" Michael said.

Naomi tried to come up with a strategy while she blocked slash after slash. Sweat threatened to seep into her eyes and hinder her focus.

"Do you have any pipe bombs?!" She asked.

"Yeah! What do you want me to do?" He asked, pulling it out of his pack. It was amazing how the Siren only focused on Naomi and not Michael.

"Go set up a tripwire at the entrance of the restaurant we were just in! Then get behind cover! Fire off a shot with your gun to let me know you're ready, I'm going to lure this thing over there!" Naomi said, dodging a slash that almost cut her stomach. "Hurry!"

Michael ran like hell. He went back to the restaurant and slid to a stop behind the narrow entrance of the door that was once there. He taped a pipe bomb to one side of the entrance and another bomb on the other. Then he pulled out a long piece of string from a roll of fishing pole twine and tied both ends to the detonator pins. He gently pulled on the string to test its strength. Then he fired off a shot into the air with his pistol and ducked behind the wall in the kitchen.

Naomi heard the shot while she was ducking under a slash. The damn Siren was blocking every attack she made with her sword. She finally saw an opening on the kneecap and slashed there. The Siren screeched and fell back in pain.

_So it feels pain too..._

Naomi turned around and ran towards the restaurant. When she was almost there, she turned around to see the Siren limping towards her. The slash she made to the kneecap hindered it's movement. She caught the flash of the twine at the entrance and leaped over it.

"Over here!" Michael called out to her from the kitchen. Naomi ran into the kitchen just as the Siren tripped the wire. Michael pulled her behind the protection of the wall just as the deafening explosion rocked the entire building.


	6. Chapter 5

"What was that?" Ellie asked. She and Joel both heard the loud explosion, even felt a small amount of the shock wave that came from it.

"I don't know, kiddo. Probably the Fireflies and the military going at it again. C'mon, let's keep moving."

* * *

><p>"Are you alright?" Michael groaned.<p>

"Yeah..." Naomi replied, weakly. She opened her eyes and froze, feeling herself heat up in embarrassment. Michael was on top of her. Their bodies were intimately close. Their chests were pressed together, pelvises in contact with each other, his legs were between her's and his lips were so close to her lips that they would touch if she moved even the slightest.

Michael realized this too when he opened his eyes. "Well. This is awkward." He said, chuckling.

"Could you get off of me?" She asked quietly.

He smirked before pushing himself off of her. "I kind of liked it down there." He said, holding out a hand to her.

She took it and pulled herself up, wiping away the dust and the small rocks that were on her. She didn't reply to his comment, nervous that her voice would betray her.

He was amused by her reaction. Her guarded emotions showed whenever something like that happened to them. He might do it more often just to see her get all flustered.

"Let's go," she finally said with a clear voice.

"Where are we headed?"

"We have to restock on supplies, right? The next best stop would have to be one of Joel's clients, Bill."

"Do you know where he is?"

"Yeah, about thirty miles north from here. We should hurry while the sun is just beginning to rise. We can make it there before sunset."

* * *

><p>By the time they made it to the outskirts of Bill's town the sun had begun to set. Naomi checked the soil, noticing that there were fresh tracks. One set of prints that closely matched Joel's shoe size... and the smaller set that had to be Ellie's.<p>

"Joel and Ellie were here not too long ago." Naomi said. "We can probably catch up with them if we hurry."

"So tell me about Bill." Michael said as they jogged into the town.

"Well... he's sort of..." she had a hard time finding the right words. "... not in his right mind. Like he's-"

"Crazy." Michael winked.

"Something like that." Naomi giggled.

Evidence that Joel and Ellie had come through the town were everywhere. Planks already placed to cross large gaps, open gates that were originally locked, corpses of Clickers and Runners, even missing parts of a structure due to a bomb of some sort.

"Lot of destruction those two caused," Michael chuckled as he lifted up a chain cranked door for Naomi to get under.

"Well Joel is not known for his subtleties." She said, holding the door for him. When he got through, she let it go and it slammed shut. That was a mistake.

Bill liked to have infected in his town to keep hunters away from it. All kinds of infected too, thankfully no Sirens or other "extremely dangerous" infected.

So much for subtlety.

Naomi and Michael quickly ran into a building that was nearby and barricaded the door shut as infected pounded away at the metal door, shaking the entire foundation.

"We need another way out." Michael said as he tried to keep the barricade from being pushed back.

"This way," Naomi said as she pried open a window with a crowbar. As soon as Naomi was on the other side, Michael bolted into a sprint and dove through the opening, the barricade collapsing behind him. Naomi slammed the window shut before the infected bursted through the door. Before they got to the window, Michael and Naomi were already gone from the vicinity.

They took a moment to catch their breaths in an abandoned bar that had steel doors.

"Bill should be around here somewhere." Naomi said, swallowing her saliva in an attempt to moisturize her dry throat.

"I hate to break it to you," Michael began as he straightened his posture. "But I don't think Bill is alive considering how many infected were back there."

"You sure about that?" Michael heard the pumping of the shotgun before he felt the barrel against his back.

"Hello, Bill," Naomi smiled. It astonished Michael that she was smiling even though there was a shotgun threatening to end his existence.

"Hello, Naomi. Always a pleasure to see you." Naomi was the only person who Bill liked. According to him, she was the only one who had some manners. "Is the pretty boy Firefly with you?"

"Yes, the _pretty boy _Firefly," she winked at Michael, "is my companion."

Michael relaxed when the shotgun was no longer against his back. Bill had holstered the gun behind his back. "I just saw Joel earlier. He had a girl with him."

"Where are they?" Naomi asked.

"Sorry, kiddo. They left about an hour ago in a pickup truck I helped them fix."

Naomi sighed. They were probably really far ahead of them. How were they going to catch up with them?...

It was like Bill read her mind. "I have a car in the garage that might work for you. I was thinking about letting Joel use it, but that little brat put me in a sour mood that I didn't want her touching it." Bill said, leading the way.

Naomi giggled, "she can be like that at times. But at least you gave them a truck to use."

"I thought I was being too nice too them. Besides they almost got me killed helping them." Bill muttered.

* * *

><p>"Here we are." Bill said as he closed the garage door behind him. They were in an abandoned mansion. Inside the garage was a car that was covered. When Bill unveiled it, Michael gasped.<p>

"How the hell did you find this?!" He exclaimed. It was a jet-black 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. From the looks of it, it was restored. The paint job was magnificent and even the leather interior was spotless and looked like it didn't age a single bit. The tires were the best quality possible. Looking under the hood, Michael wanted to faint. Under the hood was an L89 Aluminum Head 396 engine. It had dual carburetors to pump gas into the 376 hp engine.

"I just found it in this garage. Untouched," Bill began. "But the battery is no good and needs to be replaced. And I just gave the one battery that still worked in this town to Joel."

Michael opened the caps on the battery in the Camaro. "Doesn't it just need distilled water?"

"Good luck trying to find that around here. It's probably turned into my piss from drinking it." Bill laughed.

"So this car is useless?" Naomi said.

"Pretty much, unless you guys are willing to get the last gallon of distilled water in a store nearby. It's been surrounded by infected. Not impossible to get through, but one of the infected sons of bitches creeps me out."

Naomi and Michael looked at each other then at Bill. "What did it look like?" She asked.

"Well it had these sword looking blades for arms-"

"Siren." Michael and Naomi said simultaneously.

"The fuck is a Siren?" Bill asked. Naomi explained their encounter with a Siren recently. "Holy shit," he said. "An infected son of a bitch that can think?"

"We don't know if it actually can." Naomi said.

"We blew it up instead of trying to observe and learn." Michael pointed out.

"Well if what you say is true, then let's just blow the fucker up." Bill said.

"I agree." Michael said.

"What about the other infected you mentioned?" She asked.

"Other than one Bloater and a few Clickers, it shouldn't be a problem if we have a well thought out strategy." Bill said.

"Well, let's go then." Naomi said.


	7. Chapter 6

**Not so satisfied with this chapter even though I've rewritten it multiple times. Hopefully it didn't turn out a disaster. **

**And to jordan, it's called a Yumi bow lol, but it's alright. And I can't think of a way of getting a better melee weapon than a samurai sword lol. But as for the Yumi bow, I can't bring that amazing killing weapon in this story because it wouldn't be realistic at all. Yumi bows are usually only seen with samurai descendants, therefore the bow is hard to acquire. Plus it uses a longer arrow than the traditional bow, so normal arrows wouldn't work out.**

**Anyways, on with this horrible and short chapter.**

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><p>"How good is your marksmanship with that rifle?" Naomi asked Michael.<p>

"I was the best in my class." Michael said.

"How far can you shoot before accuracy becomes a problem?"

"About three hundred yards."

"One hundred is all we need," Naomi said as she rolled out the town map. She marked two areas with a pen. An X on the town's restaurant, and another X on the town's Men's Warehouse store. Bill had already circled the store where the gallon of distilled water is.

She pointed to the X closest to the store, "This is approximately twenty-three yards away from the store. This is where you're going to place a wired bomb that will kill most of the Clicker's and the Runners." She pointed to the second X, "this will have another bomb. However, this is the part where you cannot mess up. There will be stragglers, Clickers and Runners. You have to kill them with your rifle or they will set off that bomb. That bomb is crucial in getting rid of that Bloater."

"What about that Siren?" Michael asked.

"You have to shoot it with your rifle, and kill it. Head shot should do it."

"Wow. Not sure I could pull that off."

"I thought you were the best in your class," she smirked.

"I am." He winked, making her blush slightly. She tried to hide it by looking at the map.

"What do you want me to do?" Bill asked.

"Well, since I figure you've had enough of the infected for one day," she began.

"Damn right you are." Bill said.

"You could help stock up supplies for our trip in the car. I'll pay you once we get-"

"No need, just try not to come back to this god forsaken town too much. It's bad for your health." Bill chuckled as he went inside the mansion to gather supplies.

"Alright, let's go." Naomi said to Michael.

* * *

><p>Michael lay prone on top of a ruined bus with his rifle's stock sitting against his shoulder. He used a sandbag to rest his rifle's barrel on for stability.<p>

He saw Naomi laying low behind two desolate cars. She was waiting for his shot that would attract all the infected.

Michael looked down his iron sight as he took aim at the Siren's head. Trying to aim at the head was like trying to aim at a needle's tip. It was a difficult shot, no doubt about that. But killing that Siren was the key to success. Plus he really wanted to drive that Camaro.

He held his breath as his finger went inside the trigger guard. He closed his left eye as he did his best to focus on his target.

Then he pulled the trigger, willing the bullet to hit his desired point as the loud pop of the rifle rang in the air.

* * *

><p>Naomi saw the head of the Siren explode as Michael's shot hit it's mark. She smiled briefly, proud that he accomplished a difficult feat without a scope.<p>

The air was filled with the roars of the Runners, Clickers and the Bloater the next moment. They ran towards the source of the rifle shot.

When it was all clear, Naomi ran out of her cover with her sword drawn and her pistol in her left hand. She quietly strode towards the now unguarded store and carefully went through the door that still had glass on its frame.

The explosions from the pipe bombs and Michael's rifle filled the air.

Inside, she searched for the gallon of water that Bill was talking about. When she finally found it standing on the bottom shelf of a broken refrigerator, she was relieved. She sheathed her sword and picked up the gallon with her free hand.

When she turned around, she was staring down the barrel of a shotgun. "You know." It was Bill, "I got to thinking that I hate this town and that car is my only way out. Nothing personal, Naomi, but I don't want to kill you. So do me a favor and hand over that gallon."


	8. Chapter 7

"Phew . . ." Michael breathed as he slung his rifle behind his back. He had taken out all of the charging infected. It was hard to focus on aiming with that cloud of acid that the Bloater kept throwing at him. But the rigged bomb took care of the Bloater.

"Now to go meet up with Naomi.." He said to himself as he jumped down from his cover.

* * *

><p>"Bill, why?" Naomi asked.<p>

"Just give me the fucking gallon of water, Naomi. I don't want to hurt you." He said.

"If you wanted it, you could've just asked, Bill. This is _your _town after all." Naomi sighed as she held out the gallon of water to Bill.

"R-Really? You're just going to _give _it to me?" Bill asked, completely caught off guard by the unexpected response.

"Well yeah_,_" she smiled.

"Wow . . . " Bill began to laugh uncontrollably. "I think I owe you an apology . . . " He said, trying to breathe. "I thought you wouldn't be cooperative and I was afraid that I would have to shoot you." Bill said, catching his breath and taking the gallon from Naomi.

She sighed, "still the same as always, do you mind if Michael and I leave with you?"

"Originally, I was going to kill both of you . . . yeah whatever. I'll drop you off where you want me to go and then I'm taking off." Bill said.

Naomi giggled as she left the store with Bill. Michael caught up to them.

"What's Bill doing here?" He asked.

"He saved me from a Clicker inside the store, right Bill?" She said.

"Yep, the fucking Clicker almost bit your head off. You gotta be more careful next time." Bill played along.

"Huh, yeah you should be more careful." Michael winked.

* * *

><p>"Alright, give the ignition a turn." Bill said to Michael after pouring the water inside the battery.<p>

Michael, the eager car geek, turned the key and the engine turned over. He reveled in the strong and powerful engine that purred as he tapped the gas pedal.

"Now that's power right there." He laughed. Naomi rolled her eyes as she got into the back seat of the Camaro.

Bill closed the hood of the car and stepped into the driver's seat after opening the garage door. "Now let's get the hell out of here before the infected start converging on us."

Michael shut the door after sliding into the passenger seat. Bill shifted the Camaro into first gear and drove off out of his God-Forsaken-Town.

* * *

><p>"Sorry guys, I can't go any further than this." Bill said, stopping the Camaro in front of a line of cars on the freeway.<p>

"Thanks anyways, Bill. You got us closer than you think." Naomi said, getting her gear from the car and stretching.

"Looks like we're going to have to cut through the city to get to where we need to go." Michael said.

"Yeah it's our only option." She said.

"Oh! I almost forgot." Bill said as he popped the trunk open, "Joel asked me to give this to you if I ever met up with you."

Naomi smiled as she saw a bow and quiver with four arrows in Bill's hands. She gladly took the items from Bill, "thanks Bill~" She said.

"Thank Joel, he's the one who found the damn things." He said as he shifted the car into gear. "Oh, and if you do see Joel, tell that girl that I know she took one of the fucking comics from the shelf." Then drove off, the roar of the engine fading as Bill disappeared.

Naomi strapped the quiver on behind her and slung the bow across her body diagonally, the string resting on shoulder and waist. They walked down the ramp of the freeway and into the deserted city.

"You hear that?" Naomi stopped Michael ten minutes into the city. They both stood still and even held their breaths as they fine tuned their hearing. It sounded like a truck engine. "Hide." She said before they ran for cover inside an abandoned building and ducked behind a wall.

The military Humvee sped by their position and up the ramp and screeched to a stop at the top.

"Alright, let's go." Naomi said, taking point.

"What do you think those hunters are here for?" Michael asked.

"They probably heard the Camaro. A Clicker could hear that engine a mile away."

He chuckled, "that's probably true-" Then all of a sudden the air rang loudly with gunshots.

"Joel and Ellie?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," he said before they both took off in the direction of the source of the gunshots.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry this is short, I got really lazy. But I promise to make the next chapters better. You all could probably tell that I got lazy in this chapter hahaha!<strong>

**Anyways, thanks for reading and leave a review and hit that favorite/follow button.**


	9. Chapter 8

**I am so sorry for not updating this for a while, but I'm back!**

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><p>"Shh!" Naomi hissed to Michael who was behind her. They had snuck their way downtown and haven't found Joel and Ellie yet. They were about to turn the corner around a building when Naomi heard something whining. She peeked ever so slightly out of cover and relaxed a little bit. She turned back to Michael. "It's an injured dog." She said before stepping out of cover to approach it.<p>

"Whoa! Hey!" He whispered and went after her, pulling her to a stop. "What do you think you're doing?"

"We can't just leave it," she said.

"It's a dog." He sighed. "Look at it, it's growling at us." He pointed out. He was right. It was growling and baring it's teeth at us.

"That's because it doesn't know we're friendly." She scowled and looked at the dog. "I've always wanted a dog..." She muttered quietly.

"What? I didn't hear that."

"Nothing. Come on, let's see what it needs." She approached it slowly, keeping her hands raised in a 'I come in peace' type thing. The dog growled as it backed away. She noted that it was probably trained to stay quiet in case any infected were near. She also noted that it had an injured hind leg since it barely touched the ground.

Michael sighed. "Make it quick, I'll keep a lookout."

"Thanks," she smiled at him before turning her attention back to the dog. "I'm not going to hurt you," she said soothingly. The dog kept its guard up as it kept backing up. She pulled her pack off and took out a small bowl and a bottle of water. "Are you thirsty?" She asked. The dog stopped growling, but it still glared at her with hostility. She set the bowl on the ground and poured some water into it, then backed away. After a while, the dog finally gave in to its thirst and slowly inched forward and began to drink small amounts of water, occasionally stopping to see if Naomi was going to do something only to be met with a warm smile.

Michael watched the scene before him with fascination. This was a side of Naomi that he never would have guessed. So far he knew that she didn't like killing, infected or not; she is a tease at times when she feels like it's right, very good with the sword, and now he knows that she is great with animals.

After the dog finished drinking, it just stared at Naomi. It probably was wondering why it didn't attack the girl. She clearly has her guard down. Naomi pulled out a wrapped up piece of dried meat from her pack and showed it to the dog. The dog instantly went from a hostile and teeth baring dog to a panting house pet. It wagged its tail in excitement while still trying to keep the weight off of its hind leg.

She smiled as she approached it slowly, unwrapping the dried meat. "Hungry too huh?" She knelt in front of the dog and held out the piece to it. The dog took it from her hand and heartily chewed on it before swallowing. She reached out and petted the dog on the head and it warmed up to her, rubbing its head on her hand. She had seen a dog like this before. German Shepherd.

"Wow," Michael breathed. She had tamed the dog in less than five minutes.

"Mind if I take a look at your leg?" Naomi pointed to its hind leg. The dog laid on its side and whined as she gently held it in her hand. It didn't look like there was any external damage. She slid her finger against the leg, feeling for any fractures. The dog whined when she slid her finger over a certain point. "It's nothing serious." She smiled. "Just a sprain." She pulled out the bandages from her pack and bound the hind leg. "It should feel better in a couple of days."

"It's obvious that you're going to keep it, Naomi." Michael said. "But it can't really walk."

She frowned, "I'll carry him." She smiled at the dog.

"Naomi-"

Without a second thought she picked him up. "I'm carrying him," she repeated, then continued onward to find Joel and Ellie.

Michael chuckled. "She's also a stubborn one." He said to himself before following her.

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><p>"What do you think we should do?" A hunter asks his buddy. They had been watching Naomi and Michael the entire time from far away with binoculars.<p>

"The others are busy trying to catch that old man and the little girl. We definitely can't take those two on without guns." His buddy said, thinking of a solution. "You got any smoke bombs on you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Let's go then. We're gonna set up a trap and jump them. I know which route they are going to take."

"What about the dog? It will pick up on our scent."

"We use a trip wire with the bomb and wait from far away, not too far though." He said, getting up. "Let's go. We have to move quickly if we're gonna get the jump on the bitch and the Firefly."


	10. Chapter 9

"I think I'm going to call you... Spike!" Naomi said to the dog. He didn't like that name, judging from the low growl. "No? Okay... How about Shadow?" Again a low growl. "Ugh... You're so picky aren't you?" She said as she fished in her head for a name.

"Try to keep it down," Michael said. "I am technically protecting you since your hands are full." He winked.

"I still have my legs~" She said. "Ooh! I know the perfect name for you. How about Fenrir?" The dog made a confused whine. "Fenrir was one of the mightiest wolves in Norse mythology. It's a fitting name for a tough dog like you huh?" She giggled when the dog licked her cheek. "Fenrir it is~!"

Fenrir panted happily as they continued onward. When the time came to stop and eat, Naomi was unsure if Fenrir could eat regular food. But the dog gobbled it down like it was his lifeline. "Bon appetit~"

"Hey, Naomi." Michael said. "Don't you think that it's strange that it's been a bit quiet? I haven't heard anything, hell, even the dog hasn't heard anything or sensed anything."

She just noticed that. "You're right... What happened to all the shooting from earlier?... You don't think that-!" She gasped as the realization came to her: Joel and Ellie could be dead already. Either that or they killed everyone in the city.

"No, Joel and Ellie are tougher and smarter than that. They probably got away which means that we have to hurry up and catch them." He assured her. Just then, he saw the flashing glare in the distance. "Get down!" He roared as he and Naomi dived for cover, Naomi being extra careful with her landing since Fenrir was in her arms. A bullet had painfully grazed her arm and she didn't feel the searing pain until she was behind cover. She grit her teeth as she looked at Michael.

"Are you alright?!" He said.

She pulled her arm out of the now torn sleeve of her tattered trench coat and fished the make-shift bandage roll out of her pack. She winced as she wrapped the bandage around the graze four times before cutting it and tying the bandage down tightly. "It's just a graze!" She said back to him.

He sighed in relief and ever-so-carefully peered out of his cover. He jolted back as the bullet pinged off of his cover, debris splashing on the top of his head. "He's on the second floor building down the road, the building with the sign: Troy's Bar."

Naomi found a piece of a broken mirror lying on the ground and carefully picked it up. She held it out of cover as subtly as she could and after a few seconds, the building came into sight from the reflection. "Get his attention while I sneak around and flank him." She said.

He smirked. "You're just going to leave Fenrir behind?"

She smiled. "Be nice to him while I'm gone~" She said, drawing her sword and moving from cover to cover inside the buildings she was able to get into without making a lot of noise. She heard multiple gunshots, assuming that Michael was drawing the sniper fire. She snuck into the building that Michael said is where the sniper is. The stairs creaked as she carefully went up to the second floor. She wanted to be stealthy, but at the same time swift. She didn't know if this sniper was alone or not.

She felt her foot hit something and saw that she had touched a string at the top of the stairs.

_Oh no._

The air around her suddenly became a blur as a loud explosion threw her back down the stairs. She coughed violently as some dust entered her throat and groaned loudly in pain as one of the arrows escaped her pack and stuck her in the abdomen.

"Got you bitch!" She looked up to see a hunter charging at her with an iron pipe and she quickly rolled out of the way as the pipe connected with the wooden floor. She struggled to find her sword after painfully pulling out the arrow in her, realizing that she had lost the sword when the explosion from the smoke bomb occurred. Thank god it didn't stab her in the chaos.

Deciding that she had no other weapon to use, she pulled out her pistol and aimed at the charging hunter. She pulled the trigger as the hunter smacked her gun away with the pipe, causing a loud _pop _to ring in her ears. Naomi and the hunter tumbled to the floor as the wind was knocked out of her from a tackle. The hunter was on top of her as he pushed the pipe against her throat. She coughed as she struggled to keep the pipe away from crushing her windpipe. Her heart raced as the adrenaline kicked in, but she was not able to budge in the hunter's strength. She looked around frantically for anything that could be used as a weapon and found a piece of glass next to her.

She quickly grabbed the glass shard and attacked the hunter with it. He brought one of his arms up and protected his head from the shard but it plunged deep into his arm, causing him to reel back in pain.

"Ahh! You bit-!"

"Graahh!" She picked up a stool nearby and repeatedly flailed at the hunter with it. At one point the stool shattered, but the hunter was already a bloody mess when that happened. She stumbled backwards and landed on her hind, panting and sweating as the tension that was inside her began to die down. She heard the gunshots continue and suddenly remembered that she had to deal with that sniper. She hurried up the stairs and found her sword lying on the second floor quite a distance from where the explosion occurred. She picked it up and ran into the room where the sniper is.

The hunter turned around too late as Naomi roared and plunged her sword deep into his chest. His breathing became hard and gurgled as blood seeped out of his mouth. She pulled out her sword swiftly and the hunter fell forward, dead.

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><p>"Just let it all out." Michael said as he patted Naomi's back. After killing the sniper, she quickly ran out of the building and vomited. Fenrir whined as he sat a few feet away from her.<p>

"I-I'm okay..." She said in a pained whisper and let her back fall against the wall of the building and she slid down against it until she was sitting. She held her abdomen and winced as she lifted her shirt up to examine the wound from the arrow. "Damn it!..." She sighed. "I should have been more careful."

Michael slightly blushed when she lifted her shirt up without a second thought and caught sight of a small portion of her lower chest... She wasn't wearing a bra. "Uh- Um we should patch that up."

"Naomi!" Michael quickly stood up from a crouch and pulled out his revolver in the process, aiming it at the source of the manly voice: Joel.

"Wait, don't shoot!" Ellie cried out as she held her hand in front of her.

Michael holstered his revolver and crouched back down to Naomi's level. "I'm gonna need to get into your pack, you have the bandage roll." He said.

"Move aside." Joel said as he got down and removed his pack from his back, fishing out a fresh bandage roll and a bottle of rubbing alcohol from it. Michael moved out of Joel's way as he knelt to Naomi. She showed him her wound and he quickly got to patching it up. Naomi groaned loudly as he applied the rubbing alcohol. "I know, I know. The pain will go away." Joel assured her.

Michael looked at the other two people that were with Ellie. "So who are they?"

"Oh, this is Henry and Sam." Ellie replied, motioning to them by their name. "Their alright, we're actually on our way to their hideout."

"Nice to meet you." Henry approached Michael and shook his hand. "It's good to see another friendly face."

"How do you know we're not friendly?" He smirked.

"Well you would've shot us if you weren't." Michael and Henry laughed.

Ellie went over to Joel and Naomi. "What happened to you?"

She smirked. "I got hit with Joel's gift."

"Hey, now. It's not my fault you fell on it." He said, chuckling and putting the final touches on the first aid. "There, are you able to walk?"

Naomi stood up without a problem and tried walking around. That, too, wasn't a problem. Then when she tried to run, she winced as the pain jolted to her abdomen wound. "Ow... I can't run." She said.

"Well it shouldn't be a problem at the moment." Joel said.

They all froze as that familiar sound of a truck grew louder. They turned around when they heard the screeching of tires. "There they are!" The military truck with the .50 caliber machine gun was twenty yards away from them.

"Fuck! Run!" Joel said as he suddenly picked Naomi up and ran with her. Everyone else followed suit as they ran into the bar and out the back, Michael carrying Fenrir. Bullets from the machine gun pierced through the walls just as they ducked for cover into another building. The truck couldn't follow them, but continued its gunfire.

"Out the back!" Everyone looked up to see Henry waving them on after he had thrown a chair out the back window, shattering the glass. Joel had to pass Naomi on to Michael in order for him to vault over the gap, Michael passed Fenrir onto Sam. They didn't stop running until the gunfire was far away, everyone catching their breath, except for Naomi.

"Get your hands off of her." Joel said as he went to take Naomi away from Michael.

"Whoa," Michael shied away from Joel. "What the hell is your problem, old man? You passed her to me."

"Well, thank you for holding her. Now get your fucking hands off of-"

"For fuck's sake!" Naomi growled as she got down from Michael. "You're both so irritating. If you haven't noticed, we're being hunted by people who have a truck with a machine gun. Save this stupid conversation for later!" She sighed in irritation as she walked up to Henry. "Where is this hideout of yours?"

"Not too far, we should get there before the sun sets." He replied. "I'll lead the way."

"Thank you." Naomi said before following Henry and Sam.

"Wow, she's fucking scary." Ellie giggled before following them.

Joel and Michael just simply glared at each other before following.


	11. Chapter 10

**Hey everyone, sorry I took forever to update. Real life problems and stuff...**

**I know I'm skipping around a lot, but I'm doing it so I don't have to write the stuff you all already know. Like I said before, I want to focus on Naomi :)**

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><p>"Relax old man, we're safe here." Henry said to Joel. The group had made it to Henry's so called hideout in a law firm office. Joel was looking around and making sure that is was secure. Despite the fact that the bandits were nearby, not even ten yards away.<p>

"Right, right." He said, concluding that they can finally take a break in the office. He sat down in a comfortable chair and saw Sam, Ellie, Naomi and Fenrir looking around, gathering up anything they could find that was useful. Fenrir nuzzled Naomi's leg whenever he found something that might interest her. Joel would scowl every time he saw Michael within three feet of her.

Henry was observant as he watched Joel's random reactions. "Hey, what's your relation to the woman? Is she adopted?" He asked. A little conversation didn't hurt anyone.

"She's ah- she's one of my partners in this smuggling operation we run." Joel said, watching Henry's reaction.

"A smuggling operation huh? What exactly do y'all smuggle?"

"Anything, really. We smuggle just about anything from guns, food, medicine and resources to people who will pay us... It's tough times like these where you do whatever you have to if you want to survive..." He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

He frowned and nodded. "I agree with you. It's a shame the kids never get to be kids in times like these." He looked at Naomi. "Next thing you know, people like her will have more stories to tell than us older folk." He said before they both chuckled.

"So what brings you and Sam out here to Pittsburgh, Henry?"

He shook his head. "Sam and I were part of a group, and we needed supplies. Some idiot made the decision that we should search for supplies in this fucking city. We were separated when the bandits ambushed us with that fucking truck of theirs." He pulled out a map from his pack and showed it to Joel. "Not far from here is a radio tower where we were supposed to rendezvous in case anything went wrong. That's where Sam and I are going. You should come with us."

"I'll think about it." Joel said. "So after we get to the radio tower, then what? Do we go our separate ways?"

"If that's what you want. Me and my brother, we're going to find the Fireflies and join them."

"The Fireflies?" Joel scoffed. "Why would you want to join them?"

"Hey, it's better than the life me and Sam are living. Food and water, supplies, guns, and protection."

"I hate to break it to you, but the Fireflies aren't as all as they seem Henry."

"Well it sure beats being alone out in the wild where the infected and bandits are."

"Damn right..."

They were both silent for a while, watching the others talk in the other room. Ellie and Sam were playing with Fenrir while Michael was having a lovely conversation with Naomi.

"I um... I noticed that you said 'partners' when you were talking about you're smuggling operation... Are there more of you?"

"That's none of your damn business." Joel replied coldly.

"Alright, alright." Henry said, holding his hands up. "I'm sorry to pry, but I know old man, I know... I know what it's like to lose people that are close to you. That's why I'm very careful when I'm with my brother Sam out beyond the walls of a quarantine zone..." He sighed and hunched over in his chair, resting his elbows on his legs and looking down. "During the first few days when all this shit started. I was just as old as Naomi over there. Only instead of being a badass ninja woman, I was a slacker." He chuckled.

"Really?" That brought a smile to Joel's face.

"It's the truth. I would sit at home and play video games all day long." He laughed. "What did you do before the outbreak?"

"I... I was a construction worker with my younger brother, Tommy. We had just landed a good contract a day before the outbreak." Joel chuckled. "The guy who hired us was a complete asshole. I was surprised when Tommy hit him first before I did." He chuckled.

"I probably would have done the same, even if it meant risking a job like that." They both chuckled again. "None of that shit matters anymore of course when the first signs of infected people started in New York." He slouched back in his chair, sighing. "It was a wake up call for me, like most other people. Sam... He wasn't even born yet, thank god for that. It was about six years after the outbreak that Sam was born... But like I was saying, the outbreak was a wake up call. I was the strongest in my family and I had to protect my family." He looked at Joel. "And you know what's the worst part about the whole fucking thing? We survived it. Now you might be wondering why that's bad, well let me tell you... It wasn't the infected that got my parents..." He pointed towards the window that provided a good overlook of the bandits. "People like those fucking monsters killed my parents... Sam was just an infant at the time, but thank God that he doesn't remember a thing..." He sighed, rubbing his face with his hand. "Sorry, I didn't mean to rant..."

Joel shook his head. "No, you're fine..."

"So... Where were you when the outbreak started?" Henry asked.

Joel was a bit hesitant to talk about it. But after what Henry had told him, he might as well say a few things. "I uh... I lived in Texas my whole life before the outbreak started... I had a daughter and... hardly any money to my name." He chuckled. "Looking back, I wish paying the bill on time was the only issue that I had to deal with..."

Henry noticed that Joel said 'had' when mentioning his daughter. "Did you have a wife?"

Joel nodded. "Had a wife. We got divorced over something stupid... And I had to get my shit together when my daughter, Sarah, chose to stay with me rather than her mother..." He shook his head and looked down as he felt tears beginning to well up in his eyes. "But none of that matters anymore like you said... I... I lost my daughter in the first day of the outbreak... And it wasn't the infected that got to her either... It was the fucking military... I was running while carrying Sarah in my arms, there were at least five of those fucking Runners behind us and this soldier saves us. We felt safe, until the bastard pointed his gun at us... I was saved by Tommy, but..." He took a moment to swallow down his pain. "But... A stray bullet from that soldier's gun had hit Sarah... She was..." Joel couldn't finish his story as he covered his face with one hand, breaking down into quiet sobs.

Henry didn't say anything as he listened to Joel. He had an infuriated expression painted on his face. He shook his head before letting out a quiet "fucking monsters..."

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><p>"Do you have any family?" Naomi asked Michael, they were sitting across from each other on separate couches. Sam and Ellie were messing around with whatever form of entertainment they could find in the office room.<p>

"Ah... no... Not anymore..." He sighed, crossing his arms. "What about you?"

"Same." She said with a rather neutral expression. She didn't say anymore after that.

"I had my parents and my five year old sister, Lucy, for the first few years of the outbreak. My dad died because of tuberculosis, my mother disappeared when she went into a forest to look for something that would be able to serve as food for us... my sister drowned in a subway tunnel. The..." He was holding back some sobs that wanted to escape. "The tunnel... it was built next to a river. Over time the foundation begins to weaken and... it just collapsed while we were traveling through it and the large amounts of water just overwhelmed us. I-... I lost sight of Lucy. I managed to get out of the water and kept calling out for her... I eventually found Lucy's body at the end of the tunnel, her skin was pale and she had this pained expression on her face... but she was already gone before I got there..." He shook his head and wiped away the few tears that escaped his eyes.

Fenrir was laying on Naomi's lap, whining quietly like he was crying as well. Naomi gently ran her hand along Fenrir's back as she wiped away some tears of her own, thinking about her mother. "I'm sorry about your parents and your sister..." She managed to say. It was then that she remembered what Bill had said about apologizing to someone who lost a close friend of family member.

He shook his head. "There was nothing I could have done. It was inevitable, the tunnel couldn't hold forever y'know?" After everything that happened he managed to chuckle. "Nature is a bitch isn't she? The outbreak was her doing, and now... my family wasn't even killed by bandits or the infected. It was all her fault really for being at the wrong place at the wrong time... it's times like those where you question whether God really exists or not." He sighed.

"You believe in God?" She asked.

"I want to... but after all that's happened, I doubt he exists... What kind of father lets his children suffer? That's what God is doing, letting the world fall apart and collapse into chaos while his children suffer. If that's the kind of God that exists then I refuse to even acknowledge he exists." He fumed in a rather calm manner. "Do you believe in God?" He asked.

"I... I do, but I don't believe in God as an all powerful being." She said, scratching Fenrir behind his ears. "My mother..." She stopped for a moment. "My mother... she told me that God is love. I know that doesn't make sense to be honest."

"It doesn't." He winked.

That made her smile slightly, knowing he still was the same Michael she met. "Well it didn't make any sense to me either but as time passed..." She had a distant look on her face as she reminisced. Fenrir nuzzled his head into her neck, bringing her back to the present as she rubbed his back and he went back to laying on her lap. "... as time passed I began to understand what she meant." She smiled as she looked down at Fenrir, rubbing his head with her hand.

"And what might that be?" He asked.

"She was talking about me..." She said rather quietly.

He arched his eyebrow. "You lost me."

She shook her head and looked at him with a slight smile, tears trailing down her cheeks. "I know you blame God for your suffering... I sometimes do as well... But you always have to look at the positive things about an outcome... I lost my mother when she gave her life to protect me from a group of infected... I still feel responsible for her death-"

"There was nothing you could have-"

She stopped him with a look. "I could have prevented her death easily, if I didn't run off like a little brat she would still be here with me... But... if she didn't I wouldn't be here right now. Because of her sacrifice, I was able to grow up and mature. And I would never have found this." She grabbed her sword and unsheathed it halfway before sheathing it again. "Do you know how my nickname came to be?"

"You killed a lot of bandits during an escort mission by yourself while you were with Joel and... Tess." He said, looking at her unchanged expression.

She shook her head slightly. "Killing the bandits was part of it, but what really formed the nickname was how much blood was still on my blade. It literally looked like a red sword."

He nodded in understanding. "I see..." He was about to ask another question when Henry interrupted them.

"Hey, it's almost time. Get ready." He said to them.


End file.
